Talkback: Hardy annuals - Page 2

every garden should grow night scented stock and enjoy the fragrance it is easily obtainable and well worth its place in any garden keep that note book handy and observe things season to season and never forget the biennials perennials are the same year after year BUT the annuals are more interesting as you can have achange every season

I love annuals, especially sweet peas, godetia and Shirley poppies. This year I'm trying Morning Glory (half-hardy), the plan being to let it climb through an old cotoneaster that looks as if it has died. I'm giving the shrub a chance to recover, but shall take it out if it doesn't.

my all-time favourite annual - virginia stock. Lovely little flowers, unbelievably easy to grow, self-seed, flower all year round - I've had seeds plant themselves on the path against the house and flower all through the winter (which in Yorkshire can be tough). Incidentally, has anyone else noticed that in the last few years, the seedsmen have started adding an "n" to the name, making it virginian stock instead of virginia? Wonder why.

I hardly ever have anyh success in growing annuals - they just seem to disappear - perhaps my slugs lie in wait for them. So even if they are cheap to buy the seed they only work if I plant in boxes and then transplant them into the garden which makes them labour intensive.

I love the exotic giant echiums = however I saw an echium at Wisley yesterday that looked a true miniature of the echium candecans and grew to 18" high according to their label = it was named 'echium rusicum' but I have been unable to find it on any website - has anyone got any ideas?

Hello, I need some advice
I live in Madeira and this is the first year I have taken a piece of my land and cultivated it to grow flowers. Having left my books behind in the UK and now after 10 years of no gardening am having to learn all over again.
I visited North Carolina last year and a lady gave me a bag of seeds from her garden there, which I threw down this spring and had great results in that they have grown!
Not knowing what they are I have looked them up but they are related but different to what I have read on the net.
Firstly I have cosmos, plain white, plain pink and palin deep burgundy. My white ones are flowering beautifully but some of the flowers are now changing to a candy stripe pink...is this normal?
Next is Lupin, I have a white variety and a pink variety. I knew they were lupins by the leaf shape as they started o grow BUT the blooma are so strnage that I have never seen before. They are really delicate with long tendrills that come out of the flower and look very stunning. They look so delicate as the tendrils are very long and floaty. The bees and butterflies are really enjoying them. But I have no idea what variety they are.
Then I think I have a chrysanthamum type flower. Starts as one stem, brances off to other stems that give flowers. whne you dead head the stem is hollow and the stem is very slighty pricky or hairy. The head of the flower starts off very small but as it blooms the flower head grows conelike and I have white and various shades of pink. Need a lot of water or they wilt rapidly.
What I also want to know is this. we do not have frosts here as the wether is a constant temperature all year round, so we don't tend to have seasons as we do in UK. Our trees here only drop their leaves as new ones grow and I have poinsettas in my garden that grow like weeds are 10 feet tall and you just cannot kill them. Also each year I cut my geraniums back although they grow in big bushes and will flower year in year out. So, will the lupins, cosmos and other plants I mention live all year and for years to come, how do I look after them in the cimate we have?
Your advice will be much appreciated.

could anybody advice me if i can sow general ripe herbaceous perennial seed directly into small modular cells, rather than sowing into a seed tray and then transplanting into modular cells when the time is right?

Well, you just can't beat sweet peas in my opinion!
I must admit I haven't grown many annuals before but I'm trying my hand at sunflowers (2 different varieties), night-scented stocks, nigella, scabious, teasels, poppies, cornflowers and forget-me-nots this year.

I decided to little while ago to buy seeds and get a hanging basket, I have now gone to 2 hanging baskets and 2 big flower trough's lol. I have loads of hardy annuals but worried they will only last for 1 year but i read the advice ubove" Many hardy annuals also generously set seed. Either collect seed or let it fall onto the soil around and you'll have more flowers next year for free" so i take it they will drop seeds and then regrow? I am new to this its my first time but loving seeding flowers. I have Pansy mixes, petunia mixes, stock mixes, aster, candytuft, mesembryaanthemum, marigold, lobelia, forget me not, sweet peas, coleus mix, dahlia doble mixed and pompon mix and busy lizzies.cant wait for them to flower. Any advice would be great thanks

@Kelly2 You have quite a mix here, some are not hardy so you would need to save the seed and store them to sow next year like Dahlias . Lobelias, Petunias, Busy Lizzies are all tender and do not tend to self seed.

Pansies and sweet peas are easy ones to collect the seeds, I always re sow in pots as the seedlings get eaten by the slugs/vermin over winter.